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Time is of the Essence
In early 2019, Airman interviewed Dr. Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. As the Air Force’s Service Acquisition Executive, Dr. Roper is responsible for and oversees Air Force research, development and acquisition activities totaling an annual budget in excess of $40 billion for more than 465 acquisition […]
Airman Magazine No responses
February 28, 2019

Persistent Engagement
In October 2018, Airman Magazine sat down for a conversation with Maj. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, Twenty-fourth Air Force commander; Air Forces Cyber commander and Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber commander, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. He is responsible for providing Air Force component and combatant commanders with trained and ready cyber forces to plan, direct and […]
Airman Magazine No responses
December 3, 2018

Changing The Story
In October 2016, Dr. Eric Schmidt, then the Executive Director of Alphabet, Inc., Google’s parent company, and chairman of the Defense Innovation Board (DIB), independent technology and capability advisors to the Secretary of Defense, were touring the Combat Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Within the CAOC, U.S. Air Forces […]
J.M. Eddins Jr. No responses
November 5, 2018

Joint Investigation
Brig. Gen. Edward L. Vaughan is the Air National Guard Special Assistant to Maj. Gen. Scott F. Smith, the Director of Training and Readiness, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Va. The directorate, encompassing seven divisions and the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation, is responsible for policy, guidance […]
Airman Magazine No responses
October 16, 2018

Big Solutions from Small Places
A pilot scans the screen on his helmet-mounted display, monitoring air speed and information about his ground target. Then in a quick turn and ascent, he pushes the plane through the flickering gloom of a stratus layer up to a brightly lit flight path above the clouds. For intermittent moments, his helmet-mounted display screen washes […]
Airman Magazine No responses
October 1, 2018

Speed and Fusion
On Oct. 14, 1947, then-Capt. Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket plane at Mach 1 and broke the sound barrier. Since then, the Air Force has continually stretched and pushed the limits of speed – finding new ways to make its aircraft fly faster and farther. However, the U.S. is not alone in this […]
Bennie J. Davis III No responses
June 15, 2018

U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist
You’ve been in this position for eight weeks now. Stepping into such an interesting time, especially when all of our attention has been shifted over to being competitive and innovative and the Air Force has gone through all these challenges to make their Airmen innovative, what’s it like for you to be stepping into that […]
Airman Magazine No responses
April 27, 2018

Creating Synthetic Teammates
See more Creating Synthetic Teammates photos on Flickr It could be argued that the one persistent challenge faced by the Air Force over its 70-year history is how to best integrate Airmen with cutting-edge technology. Most pressing, from the earliest days of aviation, was the need to protect the human body from the potentially deadly […]
J.M. Eddins Jr. No responses
October 2, 2017

Optimizing the Data Loop
See more Data Loop photos on Flickr Col. John Boyd, an Air Force fighter pilot and military theorist, put forward the key concept of aerial combat known as the Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action (OODA) loop. Within this theory, the key adversary is not the capabilities of the opposing pilot or his aircraft, but time. He […]
J.M. Eddins Jr. No responses
September 21, 2017

Higher Ground
See more “AFOTEC Approved” photos on Flickr Sun Tzu advised in The Art of War, “When the enemy occupies high ground, do not confront him.” This is why, since the advent of flight, all battlefield commanders have sought to control the airspace above the battlefield – the “ground” above the high ground. Control of the […]
J.M. Eddins Jr. No responses
September 8, 2017